Last week Raph Koster posted a controversial article entitled Are Virtual Worlds Over? It was a reply to a more readable article by Cnet’s Dan Terdiman. In order to even try to decipher Koster’s insightful article which is loaded with lofty academic language, first you need to read Terdiman’s piece.

I’ve long been a huge fan of virtual world visionary Raph Koster. His A Theory of Fun For Game Design is a classic book on game design and being well versed in it probably helped me land my first job as a game designer.

However, I have to respectfully disagree with the implications of his article that somehow the developers of virtual worlds and MMOs have to admit defeat and realign their thinking to the mindset of companies like Zynga who produce extremely profitable social networking games like Farmville and Farm Town.

While there are some valuable lessons developers can learn from Farmville (which I hope to cover in a future article) one of them isn’t that we should give up on the importance of realizing the dream of creating robust, exciting, living and breathing virtual worlds/MMOs.

Where’s the Innovation?

One of Raph’s opening statements in his recent article troubles me and it’s his reply to Terdiman’s lament of where’s the innovation?:

The innovation lies in making something that matters to ordinary people.

Maybe I’m wrong but what he seems to be saying here is that virtual world developers need to appeal to the lowest common denominator out there. So instead of having ordinary people rise to the occasion and get involved in something that challenges and uplifts them, the developer is the one that needs to move toward the consumer.

While that may be a good strategy if you are in the service industry or selling toilet paper, it’s inappropriate for new entertainment product development. It is that kind of follow the trend thinking that is the reason why there is so much uninspired copy cat swill being produced in most segments of the entertainment industry.

By applying Raph Koster’s current theory of innovation Ultima Online, EverQuest and surely World of Warcraft would never have existed. We’d still be playing primitive games on GEnie, CompServe  and MSN because that is what ordinary people at the time were doing online.

Regarding Raph’s quote, I would add one word to improve it :

Innovation lies in making something extraordinary that matters to ordinary people.

Now that is something I who aspires to build a virtual world could believe in and might even make an excellent company slogan. It puts the emphasis properly back on the creation rather than potential consumers of said creation. Instead of the developer moving toward the consumer, the consumer gravitates toward the product.

So Much for Learning

As many know, Raph is the leading proponent of learning is fun as a theory of game design. But there is precious little emphasis on learning and mastery in this new virtual world order because this kind of product is created expressly to satiate the needs of ordinary people — the consumer. A virtual world should not be conceived and concocted like a time limited Burger King sandwich.

I figured out Farmville in about 60 seconds. What is there to grasp beyond the simplistic mechanics of plant vegetables, wait, harvest crops, purchase credits from Zynga, and buy more vegetables routine? Where is the sense of challenge when every obstacle or problem can be solved by purchasing a “solution” from Zynga?

My conclusion is that a pick up and p(l)ay game such as Farmville has no semblance of authentic learning and “a ha” moments that you would find in a serious virtual world or MMO.

Imagine if this unambitious approach was taken for a child about to enter Grade One in primary school. All of the materials would be created to appeal to their current level and there would be no challenges and learning for the student. It would be like being stuck in a perpetual Sesame Street kind of hell. The child would never develop and grow under this kind of system and would remain developmentally arrested.

Part of the mystique and wonder about previous virtual worlds and MMOs was that you had to figure them out. There were new lands and new monsters to discover and game mechanics, class mechanics, social and economic complexities to learn and master. What are the comparable challenges about figuring out social networking services like Twitter and Facebook? Get as many followers and friends as possible by being witty, funny and cool in the process?

I remember when I first started playing EverQuest. It was a new world full of mystery. There was nothing like it on the market. I had no clue about how the inner mechanics of the game worked or *how* I should play it. I was pretty much in the dark about everything but it challenged me at every level but you know what?  I loved being challenged and immersed in that strange fantasy world and so did hundreds of thousands of other people and we happily paid SOE for that unique privilege.

How True Innovation Happens

It’s a fool’s errand to try to look at social trends and then to devise a virtual world solution to fill the needs of that demographic. Innovative art and entertainment is never created by sampling public opinion or focus groups. Revolutionary products such as the iPod and iPhone were not conceptualized this way either, rather they were conceived from the leadership and drive of one person Steve Jobs.

Innovation is never driven by the consumer; the consumer always follows and never leads. The reality is that people don’t know what they want until they see it. Who would have ever imagined that before the advent of Starbucks that people would have paid $4 for a cup of coffee? People will pay for quality but they can’t pay if the product doesn’t yet exist.

While necessity is considered the mother of invention, it’s often the fearless dreams of rugged individuals who are its true parents. One such example for me personally is in the MMO realm. Did I have a *need* for EverQuest before it existed? No, as I was happy enough playing single-player games. It was the existence of EverQuest itself that created that hitherto unanticipated need within me.

Admittedly, innovation is not common and is more like a perfect storm. It comes from the belief and passion of bold individuals who have a dream, want to see it realized and are in positions of power to make it happen. Rarely does it come by putting your finger in the air to detect which way the wind is blowing and jumping on board the current bandwagon du jour.

Build it and They Will Come

That popular line from the baseball movie Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner says it all.  Instead of abandoning the dream of a compelling and meaningful virtual world we need to create one worth being a part of, something that contains enough dramatic premises that ordinary people *want* to be a part of. Virtual worlds cannot be sterile sandboxes and expect to be viable. Instead they must be compelling destinations with shared challenges where people can escape to and live out their fantasies.

We need a virtual world paradigm shift equivalent to the impact that iPhone has made on our culture. We need a MMO so magnetic that people will be irresistibly drawn to it. (Who knows, Blizzard may be crafting this new MMO as we speak.)

As I said in my comment to Raph’s article:

The problem as I see it that nobody has really tried to make a proper virtual world with modern day technology and current AAA+ production standards. Virtual worlds as a concept has not actually failed. Rather it’s just been in hibernation because it has not really been seriously attempted by anyone.

One of the reasons it has not been attempted is because of the high cost of production compared to the low cost of Flash games like Farmville. Here’s a great quote from the Terdiman article:

The cost of building 3D worlds and “the return on investment is simply not there,” Sherman said. “It’s cheaper to build a Flash game or cheaper to build an iPhone app…If you have an existing audience that you can tap into and know you can pour a lot of eyeballs [into] quickly, then it makes sense to build a [low-fi] virtual world” like Webkinz.

Yet Blizzard spent $50 million creating the MMO WoW and has since earned billions as a result of that initial investment and is basically the only thing keeping Bobby Kotick’s Activision profitable right now. Still, skittish investors want a fast return for their dollars and a 4 year development time cycle may be too long to wait leaving the MMO realm in the clutches of companies that can self-publish like Blizzard and SOE.

Conclusion

Whether you agree with Raph or not, his article has been a catalyst for a lot of soul searching and subsequent good discussion.

If you had told me that 11 years after the introduction of EverQuest that the future of virtual worlds was in a low budget, mindless game about planting vegetables I would have had laughed at you. Even harder to believe is seeing the notion of virtual worlds being marginalized by one of its pioneers and being reduced to marketing gimmick in order to help sell a cheesy game on Facebook designed to suck you dry of your hard earned money.

Interestingly enough, one of the more reasoned voices on this debate has been 38 Studio’s Steve Danuser who’s actually making a real MMO put it all in good perspective. People who have been promoting social worlds like Raph Koster might have an axe to grind and are using the success of Farmville and Farm Town to make their own theories and projects look viable in the process.

The sky is not falling at least for those of us that believe in game based virtual worlds such as MMOs.

We need not worry about Farmville and social networking services because they will never be a serious substitute for AAA+ virtual worlds like WoW and those yet to come. Games like Farmville are outliers off on their own trendy bizarre tangent; they will never threaten traditional MMOs.

Think of Farmville as the Blair Witch Project of the video game industry: produced on a low budget and very successful. But, did that movie have a long-term impact on the film industry? No, it was a flash in the pan that at the time it was all the rage just as Farmville is now.

Besides, even if phony virtual worlds like Farmville continue to thrive, I see no reason why both genres can’t exist independently of each other. And there’s every reason to believe that perhaps once people tire of the juvenile mechanics of growing your own virtual Chia Pet they may be ready to grow up and graduate to a serious virtual world.

-Wolfshead

Post from: Wolfshead Online

Build It and They Will Come

This past weekend I finally decided to start reading Robert E. Howard’s sword & sorcery classic Conan the Barbarian. At one point the author felt the need to write a history of the world that Conan inhabited in order to give him a greater sense of “realness”. It’s remarkable how both Howard and Tolkien both supplemented their fantasy worlds with such detailed historical backdrops in order to fully immerse the reader.

In many ways it was those authors who laid the foundations for the idea that worlds beyond our own could be imagined and created. Today’s virtual worlds and MMORPGs owe both of them a debt of gratitude.

However, it was during my reading of this history in the book entitled “The Hyborian Age” that something caught my eye that gave me pause and may be of interest to MMO enthusiasts.

Here’s the passage in question from Conan the Barbarian:

Then the Cataclysm rocked the world. Atlantis and Lemuria sank, and the Pictish Islands were heaved up to form the mountain peaks of a new continent. Sections of the Thurian Continent vanished under the waves, or sinking, formed great inland lakes and seas. Volcanoes broke forth and terrific earthquakes shook down the shining cities of the empires. Whole nations were blotted out.

Sound familiar? Notice that Cataclysm is capitalized. Substitute Atlantis and Lemuris for the Barrens and the Badlands and suddenly you get what sounds like the promotional description for Blizzard’s upcoming World of Warcraft expansion: Cataclysm. As many of us know by now after witnessing the 2009 BlizzCon promotional barrage, Azeroth will be besieged by volcanoes, earthquakes and floods — all eerily similar to the catastrophic events described in Howard’s Conan the Barbarian — except that in Conan’s history the cataclysm is not apparently caused by a dragon.

On a side note, even the WoW: Cataclysm trailer which seems to be narrated by a male Asian voice actor sounds strikingly similar in style and cadence to the opening narration of the Conan the Barbarian movie by veteran Asian character actor and Conan cast member Mako. Coincidence?

Now if there wasn’t an Age of Conan MMO out there, it might not pose a problem. Still, you have to wonder what the developers and publishers of the Conan MMO think about this revelation.

Imagine if the roles were reversed and another MMO company borrowed the title of a major historical event from Warcraft lore and named their expansion after it? Given the protective nature of Activision’s legal department that recently shut down a volunteer project and had an  iPhone app pulled it’s safe to assume they might do something about it.

-Wolfshead

Post from: Wolfshead Online

Did Blizzard Borrow “Cataclysm” Concept from Conan Author?

Dear King Varian of Stormwind, please explain to me why I should leave the comfort of my beloved farmstead here in the rustic pastures of Elwynn Forest to fight in your endless war against the Horde? What have the Horde ever done to me, my family or my fellow villagers? Why should I deprive young Seth and Anne of a father and my faithful wife Susan a husband, all in the name of your unjust and pointless war?

I refuse to be a pawn of the aristocrats and nobles of Stormwind. I will not sacrifice my life for your or their misguided notion of glory.

Wolfshead

Outlaw of Elwynn Forest

What you just read was a fictional account of how one of my characters in WoW would look at the prospect of going to war given the present situation in Blizzard’s Azeroth with the Alliance versus the Horde narrative. But that letter could also be directed to Tom Chilton of Blizzard, the current king and architect of the WoW PVP system.

For me, PVP in WoW has never really worked. Despite a myriad of gimmicks and enticements, I didn’t take the bait. The reason is very simple: Blizzard has never given me something really worth fighting for that I would want to go up against a fellow player and send them to the Twisting Nether. PVP in WoW is unconvincing, emotionless and contrived.

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Part of the problem is the element of risk and danger has been removed from MMOs. Without the ability to fail and experience a sense of loss there can be no commensurate glory and honor. Victory without the chance of failure is a tasteless dish. What is the point of a sanitized world where there is no sting of death or parade of victory?

Today’s bland and meaningless PVP is symptomatic of that kind of thinking. It’s like playing poker for fake money. Without risk, how can there be any reward?

Today we play in safe, sterilized virtual worlds much like the playgrounds of most modern schools in America. Nothing can be stolen. No village can be burned down or built back up. Nobody ever really dies. Nothing ever rusts and nothing ever decays. Every day Mickey Mouse and friends respawn enter a pristine Disneyland. Honestly, aren’t you getting tired of playing that low stakes MMO every day?

What Films Could Teach MMO Developers

I remember the first time I watched Patton, Gladiator and 300. They were very powerful movies that made an impact on me. I bonded with the main characters in those films. After watching them, I daresay I was so pumped up I was ready to kick anyone’s ass if they looked at me the wrong way and I’m a peace loving person.

To those people that think immersion is really not important in MMOs look at the immersive power of those films I just mentioned. It’s really an immersion of emotions. That very same power could be used in a MMO to create enough of an emotional investment that would convince a person like me who’d rather be planting a garden than fighting a battle to get involved in PVP.

The best works of art make you feel. And yes a video game should make you feel something. Feelings are immensely powerful and great motivators. I would need the feeling of anger in order to do violence and it would be in self-defense or for some righteous cause that was worth fighting for.

Concluding Thoughts

There are many millions of people that don’t like PVP the way it is currently implemented in most MMOs and the result is that they simple don’t engage in it.

I am personally not looking for the ultimate PVP experience but the only way I could ever be convinced to do it was if it was made truly compelling beyond the epics for PVP reward scheme that currently exists in MMOs like WoW. Instead reward me in other ways with a virtual world full of drama and conflict that makes me speed down the highway to get back to my computer to log on to see what’s happening.

I’m going to say something that may shock some but here it is: the perfect MMO in my opinion would not be characterized as either PVE or PVP. It would have both elegantly and seamlessly interwoven with each other. But because of the conventional wisdom out there don’t expect this MMO to come out anytime soon.

Sadly, there are timid developers out there just content to keep making more games disguised as MMOs. They aren’t interesting in creating a riveting experience for their players; they just want to play it safe and keep producing more of the same mindless MMO amusement park content.

So until MMO companies can find the courage to create a dynamic virtual world that is so gripping, intense and visceral as to encourage player to participate against other players I and many countless others will remain on the sidelines of your phony cartoon “war”.  Until such a time as you either allow me to create or obtain something worth fighting for, I will remain a PVP draft dodger.

-Wolfshead

Post from: Wolfshead Online

Confessions of a PVP Draft Dodger

Last year I penned a few in-depth and apparently controversial articles that evaluated some of the EverQuest 2 starting areas from the perspective of a newbie. It has long been a reality that in the video game industry that the average player will play and essentially audition your game for 15 minutes. If you don’t impress them within that short time period you will most likely lose that customer forever.

The video game developer has but one chance to knock it out of the park with concentrated awesomeness. Every aspect of your game has to be amazing, captivating and compelling for those critical 15 minutes. It’s even tougher if you are making a MMO.

In both of my main articles I urged SOE to focus on improving the newbie experience so that more people could experience the wonder and magic that is Norrath. Some complacent EQ2 veterans who shall remain nameless were not very impressed with what I had to say but there is some recent news that might make them reconsider their objections.

Today I read the February 14 pre-launch of Sentinel’s Fate producer’s letter from Alan “Brenlo” Crosby and I came upon some very interesting information that I believe has vindicated my series of articles. What did Alan Crosby say that impressed me so much?

SOE is Listening

Here’s a portion of Alan Crosby’s producer letter that shows that finally someone at SOE is listening:

As many have noticed, Halas is not going out with the expansion, many have asked why and the reasoning is twofold.  We have three pretty decent starting areas already.  Darklight, Greater Faydark and Timorous Deep.  We know they are not perfect and so the team has done considerable work in reworking those areas, streamlining the progress path to make for a better experience.  We believe that you will find the experience in those zones to be far better than it had been.

Alan Crosby and the team at SOE deserve my sincere congratulations for improving their existing newbie experience before releasing a new one. It’s nice to know that EQ2 has wisely decided to put the welcome mat out for potential new players. After all, what is the point of having a MMO full of amazing content if new players don’t stick around long enough to see it?

As a result of this positive news I’m going to purchase Sentinel’s Fate and check out the new polished newbie experience. Believe me, I want to get hooked and fall in love all over again with Norrath. EverQuest has a special place in my heart as it was my first MMO.

Blizzard Reveals Their Newbie Friendly Strategy

On a related note, there was another news story last week the drives home the important of a well-crafted newbie experience. Blizzard has at last publicly revealed that one of the keys to success in MMOs is the ability to consistently attract new players. Why? It’s because you need more new players subscribing then old players quitting for your MMO to keep growing.

This revelation was made by Blizzard President Mike Morhaime when spoke during last week’s Activision/Blizzard investors conference call about the completely revamped newbie experience that will be coming to WoW via their new Cataclysm expansion. He stated that the WoW newbie areas that have been untouched for 5 years will be infused with the improved level of craftsmanship and quest design that is currently evident in Wrath of the Lich King.

This flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that used to be that once your MMO is established you have to cater exclusively to established subscribers with high level content. Now we have clear evidence and not just conjecture that attaining a balance of attracting new subscribers and keeping existing subscribers happy is the proven recipe for success and growth.

If anyone doubts that creating a state of the art, welcoming newbie experience is not as important than keeping content for your high level players then the president of Blizzard’s comments to the investment community should diffuse that doubt entirely. This is precisely what I have been saying all along on this blog and it’s gratifying to see two major MMO news stories in the past week reaffirm that.

-Wolfshead

Post from: Wolfshead Online

Blizzard and SOE Agree: Improving the Newbie Experience Equals Success and Growth

The success of a virtual world is dependent on the ability of the developers to convincingly immerse the player in their world. Without a daily emphasis and reverence for mechanics, art and design that contribute to immersion, the virtual world you are trying to create for your subscribers is in danger of collapse.

Immersion is essentially about belief. In their hearts and minds, players truly need to believe and perceive that your virtual world is real. Real enough for them to invest thousands of hours of their time and dollars and even more importantly invest their emotions in your world.

In recent years the reigning king of MMOs the World of Warcraft has become much less immersive. As time has progressed, this venerable MMO has become decidedly more about the game than the world. Why have they seemingly cast it aside immersion in favor of introducing features and gimmicks that detract from that most noble of all virtual world constructs?

What is Immersion?

Immersion is a state when the player or spectator (in the case of plays and motion pictures) temporarily suspends their disbelief and willingly transports themselves into the realized world of the creator. The difference between films and virtual worlds is that the players are not mere bystanders — they are active participants with a purpose.

True immersion is really a holistic mindset or philosophy of art, design and user interface that when combined should influence all aspects of a virtual world rather than just a few features in isolation.

One example of immersion is critters in WoW. At first glance they seem to serve no purpose — they just exist in the periphery, scurrying about with their own purpose. Yet in Westfall when you see a wolf chasing a chicken suddenly the world feels believable. It is these kind of innocuous details that helps create the illusion of life. But take these seemingly trivial creatures away and suddenly the world feels less alive.

Another example of immersion are all of the tables, chairs, paintings, bottles, cups and other assorted doodads found in a virtual world. All of them exist to give the virtual world depth, richness and detail. This is done to give the player a subconscious feeling that if they put so much work into these seemingly trivial details, then how much work will they put into the important things?

Immersion and the Average Player

I don’t expect the average WoW player to care too much about the erosion of immersion in Azeroth, after all they have already bought into the illusion and suspended their disbelief.

The typical WoW player is probably unconcerned and even unaware of what immersion is which is how it should be; yet they’d most certainly miss it if it weren’t there to begin with. In fact it’s a convincingly immersive experience that attracts many of us to a virtual world in the first place. Think back to those first amazing 15 minutes you spent in those magical WoW starting areas; they were  designed to be incredibly immersive to draw us in and hook us.

How to Erode Immersion

The problem with immersion is that it’s far easier to destroy then it is to create. One could have the most amply immersive virtual world in existence then with the careless addition of a few features negate all of the hard work that designers, artists and programmers have created.

Immersion is a state that needs to be constantly nurtured, promoted and guarded.

The Tug of War between World and Game

Back in the early 2000’s when WoW was being designed and produced there was a greater respect for the notion of immersion and there was a feeling that the virtual worlds had great potential. The MMO genre was still not mainstream back then and was not prone to the demands of the current convenience driven ADD mentality that is so pervasive among today’s fresh faced video gamers.

Since the inception of WoW, there has always been a philosophical tug of war at Blizzard between balancing the world aspect with the game aspect. However, the original artists and designers really pulled out all the stops and created an amazingly beautiful and breathtakingly detailed world that is still unparalleled after all these years. It is that initial effort of creation that has been the counter-balance to all of the recent game-centric features.

Surplus and Deficit

Another way to look at it is that WoW started with an unprecedented surplus of immersive qualities: the artwork was stunning and original, the character and mob animations were detailed and luxuriant, the music and sound effects inspired and sparkling.

Then as features were added that did not support the same level of immersion and instead detracted from it, that original surplus has been depleted to its current woeful level.

It is my opinion that the people currently in charge of WoW do not have that same level of respect for immersion and have instead skewed the balance in favor of the “game” aspect of MMOs. Instead of a cohesive virtual world, WoW has become a MMO that is characterized by a series of crudely tacked-on features and mechanics that absolutely fail on any reasonable immersion test.

Let’s take a look at just a few of those features and analyze their impact on immersion:

Drinking the Instancing Kool-Aid

Instancing is the ultimate triumph of game over world. It’s the one feature that has truly defined WoW. It gives the developers the ultimate control of who enters and when. It’s negative impact on immersion deserves special mention even though it shipped with WoW back in 2004.

It’s a topic that MMO veterans used to debate strenuously back during first few years of WoW but due to that MMOs overwhelming success it has somehow been accepted into the canon of MMO features despite its multitude of non-immersive features.

Instancing has often been hailed as one of the most revolutionary features ever developed for virtual worlds. Yet those magical portals that separate the persistent world from the non-persistent world within Azeroth have never really been adequately explained within the context of the world. How is it that there could be hundreds of Lich Kings chasing after Jaina Proudmoore in the Halls of Reflection on any given server at any given time?

And what about instance locks and timers? How is that a player can enter through an instance portal one day but the next day she cannot. How does that make sense?

Instancing is a cop out.  Yet we accepted it because the rest of WoW was so brilliant and amazing. Once the player-base accepts one dubious feature, it’s not that hard to for them to accept the introduction of other dubious features. That’s precisely how they got us to drink the Kool-Aid.

The WoW Achievement System

The WoW Achievement System (easily the most unimaginative name in MMO history for a feature) is probably one of the most unoriginal and amateurish features ever added to a MMO. This is another mechanic that makes no sense in the context of the world. When an achievement is announced to you, those around you and your guild, it’s like the disembodied voice of a god-like power much like Santa Claus that watches you constantly and tracks your every move in Azeroth. It knows when you’ve been bad or good and tells the world.

This bizarre system of categorizing and quantifying almost every aspect of gameplay does nothing to increase the level of immersion in Azeroth. Sadly, it could have been integrated into WoW with more elegance and harmony via NPCs that could track such things or even some kind of journal.

But don’t expect anyone to balk at the Achievement system now. Today’s generation of video gamers raised on a diet of XBox Live achievements not only expect it, they demand it.

The Dungeon Finder System

It’s really hard to believe that a little green eye better known as the Dungeon Finder can somehow assemble your group and magically transport you and 4 other players from other servers into one random dungeon. Then when you are done, you are magically transported back to your previous location like Dorothy waking up in Kansas in the Wizard of Oz.

You don’t even have to visit a particular location or interact with an object or even enter through a portal. Being part of a group takes little effort and can be completed in 2 mouse-clicks.

Remember hearthstones and inns in the first beta? Back then when they were implemented at least Blizzard was not so lazy and unimaginative. Players had to physically click on something in their inventory to get teleported back to an inn. If this feature was created today it would no doubt be placed on an easy to find icon on your toolbar and you’d be transported instantly.

From the We Stole it From Pop Culture Department

The ridiculously high percentage of pop-culture references has always bothered me in WoW as being something that brings me back to the real world rather then reinforcing the virtual world. Today it’s not unusual to find almost every NPC that has some connection to a motion picture or pop song. It’s almost become a meta-game to uncover and appreciate the pop culture references in WoW.

You have to wonder about the integrity of the writing and question Blizzard’s commitment to immersion, when a recent video interview the lead Blizzard Quest designer admitted that the quest he was most proud of was where he pilfered a line of dialogue directly from The Godfather.

If you are going to steal stories and plot lines then at least do it with class and disguise it.

Mr T Invades Azeroth

Probably the worst offender of all is the introduction of the Mr. T mohawk grenade which transforms people (against their will) into a likeness of Mr T –  a D list celebrity from the 1980’s sitcom the A-Team.

Someone in high places at the Blizzard marketing department thought it was clever to re-purpose some art assets from a previous Mr. T WoW commercial and use it for the current promotion and place this moron’s face in the MMO.  Well it’s utterly stupid and has no place in Azeroth. Score another failing grade for immersion.

What’s next, exploding Ozzy sunglasses that suddenly turns players into rambling, incoherent, washed up rock stars?

Who’s Responsible?

Creating a believable immersive world where humans can escape to and take on the roles of great warriors and powerful mages is not an easy task and nor is it cheap. The very nature of the Internet and even players themselves represent forces that naturally work against the immersion of a virtual world. Therefore it is incumbent on the MMO company to do all they can do push back the barbarians at the gate who would seek to destroy the sanctity of those worlds.

One really wonders if those at Blizzard are doing all they can to protect the integrity of Azeroth?

If I had to put my finger on the main reason for the recent erosion of immersion is that the current leadership at the helm for WoW just doesn’t have the personal passion and design vocabulary for this under-appreciated virtual world building block. Somehow they’ve taken for granted that a virtual world needs all of its component parts to each contribute to the players sense of immersion.

It’s a also a much different video game landscape today then it was 10 years ago when WoW first entered the psyche of its creator Rob Pardo. Blizzard has created its own mystique about WoW and redefined what a MMO is, with the end result being that WoW has attained a sort of critical mass in the popular culture.

Another reason could be that the original crew that made WoW are probably long gone or moved to other projects or with other companies. This has the effect of leaving us with younger developers whose only standard for immersion is tragically WoW itself.

It could also be hubris on the part of Blizzard. Eventually even the very best of companies can fall victim to the deception of invincibility. In the case of the Achievement System and the Dungeon Finder system it’s clear that Blizzard is either just plain lazy or so arrogant that they believe their millions of subscribers will embrace anything they create. Anyone remember the horribly broken Honor System?

Concluding Thoughts

For a company that earns $600 million in profits every year from WoW, I have to wonder why it’s so hard for them to find the resources to ensure that new features meet some standard of harmony and cohesiveness with respect to their immersive value before they are included.

At what point will someone stand up during a high level meeting at Blizzard and have the courage to say “NO” to the approval of yet another feature that detracts from immersion? Is there any line in the sand that the Blizzard developers will not cross as they drain the well of immersion dry in order to quench the thirst of the gamer?

What really worries me is that all future mass market MMOs will look to Blizzard’s WoW as a blueprint for success. Blizzard’s lack of reverence and stewardship for the concept of immersion could find its way into these MMOs and the results would be disastrous.

The leadership at Blizzard who keep introducing these non-immersion features are recklessly spending the surplus of immersion created by their predecessors. Some day the tally will go into the red and by then the tipping point will be reached. At the present rate, that day may come sooner than they think.

-Wolfshead

Post from: Wolfshead Online

WoW’s Growing Immersion Deficit

In an of age of contrived, vapid music it’s refreshing to hear an up and coming artist that has her own unique voice amidst the parade of clones that clog the airwaves. One such artist is Alexandra Stewart. She has a sound that is all her own that exudes authenticity and originality.

Her first self-released indie recording is titled Stop for a Minute. Alexandra showcases her strong songwriting abilities here with an incredibly catchy yet sensitive tune. Her voice is warm, sultry and genuine and really defies categorization.

The recording by Oresti Tsonopoulos is first rate and relies on a confident minimalist production style and contrasts that with some amazingly lush vocals from Ms. Stewart which results in a hypnotically brilliant piece of music.

Here’s her first music video which I recently discovered on YouTube from her upcoming album Short Stories EP.

This young Canadian lady is truly talented! And as a fellow ex-pat Canadian, I can’t wait to hear more from Alexandra Stewart.

-Wolfshead

Post from: Wolfshead Online

Stop for a Minute – Alexandra Stewart

Lately my faith in the MMO media and sadly the media in general has been waning due to the problem of advocacy journalism. Otherwise known in gamerspeak as fanboyism.Very rarely do gaming magazines and websites ever bother to ask tough questions. Even more rarely do they ask follow up questions lest they lose their precious access to devs and all expense paid junkets out to Blizzard headquarters in Irvine California.

So it is with surprise that via an article in WoW.com, we learned that during an interview with the German fan site WorldofWar that a member of the gaming press actually asked Blizzard WoW Game Director Tom Chilton a tough question.  Unfortunately that question produced an answer that Ebenzer Scrooge of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol would have been proud of.

Here’s the exchange:

WorldofWar.de: The most important question first: When will player housing be integrated?

Tom Chilton: (laughs) Haha, no, there are no plans for player housing.

Unfortunately despite Tom’s laughter and dismissive answer, the interviewer failed to ask Tom a follow-up question.

Here’s what I would have asked:

Tom, why after 5 years of WoW have you failed to implement player housing despite the fact that it was promised by Blizzard before the release of WoW in 2004?

Tom, what evidence do you have that this is a feature that the WoW community would not support and want?

Tom, can you explain what the RPG means in MMORPG?

Tom, why aren’t you supporting and promoting role-playing in WoW?

Tom, do you agree with the slogan that Blizzard uses to promote WoW in various ads: “It’s Not a Game, It’s a World!”?

Player Housing Redux

Earlier this year I crafted a comprehensive look at Blizzard’s failure to implement player housing in WoW. I don’t want to rehash all of those arguments right now but this kind of outright dismissal of one of the fundamental concepts that helps support the notion of virtual worlds and immersion infuriates me. Someone like Tom Chilton who is essentially now in charge of WoW should have a more elevated understanding and appreciation of community, role-playing and immersion.

Even Jeff Kaplan who was previously a hardcore raider and  the lead designer of WoW before leaving the project made the following surprising statement back in 2007 to MTV:

Jeff Kaplan: I think housing can take World of Warcraft to the next level.

Perhaps Jeff will include player housing in the upcoming  Blizzard MMO Starcraft Universe (note: this is pure speculation on my part). He’d be smart if he did.

A History of Dubious Achievement

When you take a closer look at Tom Chilton you soon understand that his background in game design is solely focused on PVP. He was in fact Evocare, a game designer for Ultima Online a PVP based MMO. Therefore it is no surprise that Mr. Chilton has shown no interest whatsoever in promoting anything other then his own personal bias which is hardcore PVP.

From my point of view, Tom Chilton is a game designer that really can’t point to any successful accomplishments during his tenure at Blizzard. Every single one of his experiments with PVP has been a costly flop and failure. Battlegrounds, Arenas, e-sports and welfare epics have been the butt of constant jokes in the WoW community.

PVP was far better when it was left on its own as emergent gameplay between the Alliance and the Horde instead of the incentivized farce it has become.

Tom’s PVP baby has been in a constant state of flux and not only that it has created negative side effects for the more successful parts of WoW which are PVE. Even Blizzard VP Rob Pardo has admitted in a recent interview that PVP has been a failure.

How Long Must PVEers and Role-Players Subsidize PVP?

How many millions of dollars in manpower and resources are spent taking care of the problems that PVP creates for the rest of WoW? These resources could have been utilized to create more cohesive community building mechanics like player housing but instead they were wasted. Yet somehow Tom keeps getting promoted at Blizzard.

Anyone who’s ever worked in the corporate world knows that there are always people that never seem to let a lack of talent and surplus of incompetence ever stand in the way of their personal advancement.

I can’t think of one thing that this man has accomplished that I as a game designer would be proud to put on my resume. The truth is that if Tom Chilton had never worked at Blizzard WoW would probably be in better shape than it is today.

Conclusion

At the last BlizzCon many of the devs such as Rob Pardo seemed to talk a lot about community. It’s too bad that they don’t walk the walk and create those kinds of community building mechanics within their own MMO as others such as EverQuest II, Lord of the Rings Online and Runes of Magic have done quite successfully.

The lack of player housing in WoW suggests that there is a deeply entrenched aversion to any kind of feature that is not directly tied to combat within the currently male dominated Blizzard Star Chamber. It suggests that Blizzard is blissfully ignorant and unappreciative of female gamers that would enthusiastically embrace player housing. Anyone interested at all in bringing more female gamers to the MMO demographic should read Morninglark’s excellent article on player housing titled Why Have Player Housing?

At least Blizzard devs like Jeff Kaplan and Alex Afrasiabi have evolved and matured from their previous hardcore raiding proclivities and embraced a broader and more cohesive view of virtual worlds. Regrettably, Tom Chilton remains frozen in a state of perpetual adolescence as his obsession with PVP to the exclusion of all else continues unchecked. I’m afraid as long as he is in charge of WoW, player housing will only be a pipe dream for 11 million virtually homeless players.

-Wolfshead

Post from: Wolfshead Online

Blizzard’s Scrooge: Tom Chilton Dismisses Player Housing for WoW

There’s an interesting piece about Wikipedia from the Wall Street Journal Online. It seems that Wikipedia volunteers are leaving faster than new volunteers are joining. Could it be that this unaccountable and self-appointed repository of public knowledge  is on the verge of imploding?

In an article that I penned earlier this year I exposed some of the corrupt policies that reward volunteers that delete articles in order to increase their standing with the organization. A venerable MUD called Threshold was adversely affected by the shenanigans of these Wikipedia deletion happy scoundrels and almost had its Wikipedia entry deleted if it were not for the public outcry that ensued.

One of the best comments so far comes from Nicole Hamilton:

The problem of the so-called “deletionists” is totally out of control on Wikipedia. These are, so far as I can tell, completely self-appointed topic police who go from one article to another deleting pretty much anything they don’t like. Now, certainly, if they were making these decisions in topics where they actually had some particular domain expertise or knowledge, I’d say, fine. But that doesn’t appear to be what’s going on. To me, it just looks like a plain ol’ power trip for idiots who know basically nothing about anything except Wikipedia’s rules, which, also as pointed out in the article, are getting to be about as labyrinthine as the IRS code. Bottom line, Wikipedia is falling over of its own weight.

There are many other spot on comments as well. Anyone interested in educating themselves about the abuse of power, politically correct politics and cliques that dominate Wikipedia would do well to read the entire thread.

The information age promised us increased democratization and empowerment of the citizenry. The old axiom knowledge is power is certainly true but what of those who decide what is knowledge? These gatekeepers of facts and history hold the real power. This is why Wikipedia can not be trusted by anyone interested in objectivity and the truth.

Here’s a free video report from WSJ Online which gives the viewer a good overview of Wikipedia’s problems. Also here’s another WSJ Online video link of an interview with Andrew Liu the author of The Wikipedia Revolution.

Just a note, the WSJ Online is a pay service.  However, the first couple of paragraphs of the article are free as are the comments.

-Wolfshead

Post from: Wolfshead Online

Wikipedia in Trouble as Volunteers Leave

What if J.R.R. Tolkien had named his classic fantasy trilogy How Frodo Destroyed the One Ring at Mount Doom? Thankfully he had the good sense and propriety not to do so as it would have been foolish to have revealed the climax of the story within the title of the book.

Part of the reward for the reader who invests their time in a work of fiction, is the gradual revelation of the story. The same paradigm should apply to MMOs and virtual worlds that are story based. As the player delves deeper into the world they are rewarded by experiencing more of the story. I’m not a big fan of story based MMO’s but if you are going to create one, then at least do it correctly.

Why then is Blizzard so eager to destroy this classic relationship of author, story and reader by routinely previewing the future in the World of Warcraft?

Arthas Will Die Whether You Like it Or Not

To illustrate my point, today as I loaded up WoW I was greeted with a small graphic that was an advertisement for Patch 3.3: The Fall of the Lich King. The name of the patch bothered me. It seems that Blizzard has preordained that Arthas will die on schedule in the next path. This is insulting to the players because it assumes that Arthas will be killed regardless if it happens or not.

Apparently Blizzard believes in creating a virtual world where everything is scripted down to the last detail. Everything is calculated and preordained. It’s almost as if the efforts of the players are irrelevant and subservient to the decrees of the game designers and storytellers at Blizzard.

As far as Blizzard is concerned, *you* the player are not that important in the grand scheme of things. Events will unfold in Azeroth at the appointed time and place. You the player are impotent and powerless to shape your virtual world? Just shut up and play.

The BlizzCon Grand Reveal

When you think about it, the very same problem plagues the annual BlizzCon gathering. In this event, Blizzard basically previews the next expansion for millions of players around the world. It’s nothing more than a gloried spoiler fest. By doing this they are cheating their millions of fans by removing the element of surprise and destroying the thrill of discovery.

For the next WoW expansion Cataclysm we already know far too much about what will happen and it’s still less than 2 years away.

Why can’t players be allowed to experience content as it happens? Why is Blizzard so intent on previewing content years in advance? Why is Blizzard cheating their subscribers by revealing spoilers, important details and plot-lines when they haven’t even happened yet in the course of time?

The Right of Self-Determination for Players

I’ve long held the belief that players in virtual worlds should have the right to tell their own stories and create their own futures. Instead of being slaves to predestination, players need to know that the fate of their server/shard is in their hands — not the hands of the developers.

Let me play the devil’s advocate: why does Arthas have to die at all? What if the population of a particular server decides they would like to serve Arthas instead of defeating them? Shouldn’t that be their choice?

When you preordain the future you have taken away liberty from your players. Players become spectators instead of participants.

When a particular outcome is guaranteed what is the point of being part of a virtual world?

Conclusion

The video game industry and their marketing departments are seemingly trapped in a sort of preview mania. You have beta testing, patch testing, demo versions and countless magazine and web previews for upcoming video games. All of these things exist to generate buzz about their games. In the end it’s all about money.

If story didn’t matter the element of surprise and discovery would be inconsequential. But, for MMOs that are so heavily scripted and story-based it’s critical to guard and respect these fundamental mechanics. MMO companies need to stop treating players like children and allow them to experience the story for themselves.

Even better, have the courage to give players the tools and autonomy to make their own stories and create their own destinies. What a shame that a decade after the release of the venerable EverQuest we are nowhere closer to realizing that dream in a mass market MMO.

-Wolfshead

Post from: Wolfshead Online

Blizzard’s Addiction to Previewing the Future

Virtual worlds are ultimately about creating, administering and experiencing a system of governance. Every day millions of players enter virtual worlds and are subject to rules and policies laid down by game designers. Not only do designers have the same power as politicians in the real world, they act as tin-pot gods that can control the color of the sky and even alter natural laws of physics within their virtual worlds.

More importantly MMO designers are virtual social engineers. They dictate how economies will ultimately behave by setting drop rates and prices for goods. They also control mobility via the level system. They create the incentives, conditions and mechanics that influence what content players will experience in the game world. They can control how players will act and react by rewarding certain behaviors and punishing others.

Given that MMOs are a form of participatory entertainment, the game designer has a vested interest in ensuring that players are attracted to their worlds. The more a player interacts with the world and experiences some form of gratification, the more likely that player will continue to inhabit that world and keep paying the monthly subscription fee.

On the other hand, players may have a different goal then the game designer. The player, out of self-interest seeks the pursuit of their own happiness within that virtual world and on their own terms.

Virtual Worlds as Entities

Finally there is the virtual world itself. Like Planet Earth, it could be argued that virtual worlds such as Azeroth, Norrath, Middle-earth take on their own intrinsic characteristics and have a unique identity. We often hear the phrase: the long term health of the MMO. This indicates that the virtual world albeit is akin to an organism that is independent of its creators (the designers) and inhabitants (the players).

What happens when the goals of the designer and the player contradict each other? Isn’t it possible that the health of the virtual world can suffer if designers do things for the wrong reasons? Isn’t it also possible that giving in to the whims and desires of players could result in the health of that MMO suffering?

Similarities Between the Real World and Virtual Worlds

Here’s an interesting exercise: let’s substitute state for virtual world, politicians for developers and citizens for players and see what we get:

What happens when the goals of the politicians and the citizen contradict each other? Isn’t it possible that the health of the state can suffer if politicians do things for the wrong reasons? Isn’t it also possible that giving in to the whims and desires of citizens could result in the health of that state suffering?

Sound familiar? The parallels with the politics of the real world are striking.

MMO developers are just like politicians except that we don’t elect them directly. Instead, we vote with our feet and dollars. Want to “vote out” your MMO developer? Stop subscribing. But that’s not really a satisfactory solution.

MMO devs are more like tyrants. There is no direct way to make them accountable for their actions and in-actions. MMO devs are tied to the popularity of their MMOs: if the MMO is popular they are free to continue their reign; if a MMO is unpopular they are dealt with severely by the marketplace and the MMO soon folds leaving them on the unemployment line or worse working on a new MMO.

Democracy?

It’s interesting that despite the fact that millions of players voluntarily log in to MMOs each day there is no system of representation for players. In the past companies such as SOE have set up player representatives that liaisoned with the devs. Other attempts have been made to set up forums where classes can vent and communicate with the devs. Both of these schemes ended up being public relations contrivances that had limited success.

The reality is that allowing players to vote on features and game design elements would have the effect of turning letting the monkeys run the zoo. It would be a logistical nightmare. It also goes against the control freak design philosophy that has characterized the most successful MMO of all time: World of Warcraft.

As in the real world trying to establish a democracy is very hard. This is why most countries are run by dictatorships. The truth is that totalitarianism is the most efficient form of rule.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Even though we may be unhappy and fed up with a MMO and the developers, it’s not that easy to leave as an act of protest. As players we’ve invested hundreds of hours into our characters and we’ve developed friendships with other players that keep us logging on each night.

MMO companies know this full well and are counting on it. This magic dust is called social cohesion.

And this is the predicament of living in a Blizzard dominated MMO universe. Where do you go when there is nowhere else to go? Do you take the devil you know or the devil you don’t know?

Special Interest Groups

As in the real world special interest groups exist in virtual worlds. There are the constituencies of hardcore players, raiders, PVPers, role-players, casuals, achievers, explorers, socializers and more. There are also demographic groups: male gamers, female games, the teen gamers, family gamers et al. The devs walk a tightrope and try to appease all them and offend none of them.

The more vocal and savvy groups play a sort of meta-game on the official forums to lobby the devs for a larger share of the development budget — just like the political lobbyists in the real world.

Then there is the silent majority. The unsung and unheralded player that pays the bills, never complains and dutifully logs on each day. Who speaks for them?

Our Fearless Leaders

If one were to be somewhat cynical, MMO devs could be viewed like self-serving politicians who bribe people with their own tax dollars in order to keep their positions of power. In the case of some MMO devs, they continue to demonstrate that they are capable of doing things that ultimately hurt the long-term integrity of the game but have the short-term effect of attracting more subscribers which increases their revenues.

Like devious Roman emperors of antiquity, some MMO devs routinely appease the masses with the distraction of bread and circuses while eroding the fundamentals of the MMO that attracted them there in the first place. Skill, status and accomplishments are transient, disposable and mean nothing to these people. As long as the MMO is “popular” and the shareholders are happy who really cares if it is good?

Conclusion

It has been said that politics is the art and science of government. The MMO developer that understands and transposes this realization to the virtual genre is light years ahead of their competition.

Creating and running a massively multi-player online game is no easy task. Virtual worlds and MMOs are far more advanced then single-player games because they involve the management of long-term relationships with people. Combine that with the social dynamics inherent with dealing with thousands of players that are interacting with each other and you have a complexity that only a politician could appreciate. Yet for those MMO companies that take the time to get it right, the rewards are phenomenal.

But this begs a question: given the history of this genre, why do so many MMOs fail? The life expectancy of a MMO is a direct result of the quality of the mind-set of the developers that run them. The same can be said for successes and failures of their non-virtual counterparts in the real world. Those that fail to learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them.

-Wolfshead

Post from: Wolfshead Online

How Virtual Worlds Mimic the Politics of the Real World